Chapter 139: The wails of avenger souls.
Kai seated his Queen first, his hand lingering a moment at the small of her back, then took his place next to her. The silence that enveloped the throne hall was forged of steel, sharp, rigid, and ready to snap.
"Bring them in," the Alpha King commanded, his voice cutting through the stillness like a force of authority.
The doors groaned open, and the guards ushered in the four Gamma warriors. Their Alpha’s faces were etched with creased brows and clenched jaws, the mark of dishonor weighing heavy on their nerves. These four Gammas had brought disgrace upon their packs, brawling with each other when they’d been explicitly ordered not to.
The four warriors strode forward, broad-shouldered and silent, until they reached the base of the platform. There, they dropped to their knees before the throne, heads bowed in shame.
The air thickened, a volatile mix of tension and humiliation as if the stone walls themselves recoiled from their presence. A reckoning was coming, a harsh one.
Kai’s face was carved in stone, his expression was unreadable and absolute. It was a warning before the storm. There was no kindness in his eyes, only the heavy mantle of command. Beside him, Ren fought to steady her breath, anxiety coiling in her chest. She didn’t know what Kai was about to do until she felt it. Shadow stirred.
A thick, voluminous thread of black smoke unfurled from the Alpha King’s body like a living serpent. It reeked of death and decay, having an unnatural ancient air. This wasn’t Kai’s aura as an Alpha wolf but his dark side.
The darkness slithered across the marble floor, curling through the air like a predator. Then, with calculated grace, it coiled itself around the kneeling Gamma warriors.
The entire hall was still in place. No one dared to breathe. Even the elders- hardened by war and centuries of bloodshed- turned pale.
"Shadow is torturing them..." a whisper broke through the suffocating silence, brittle and hushed.
Gasps followed and eyes widened in terror.